Handling machines for spaghetti and like products



Nov; 19, 1957 x. SENZANK 2,813,498

HANDLING MACHINES FOR SPAGHETTI AND LIKE PRODUCTS Filed June 30, 1951 8 Sheets-Sheet 1 JNVENTOR. w IRQ SEZVZANI Nov. 19, 1957 1. SENZANI 2,813,498

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HANDLING MACHINES FOR SPAGHETTI AND LIKE PRODUCTS Filed June so, 1951 4 s Sheets-Sheet s JNVEN TOR. IRO SENZANI WMA l. SENZANI HANDLING MACHINES FOR SPAGHETTI AND LIKE PRODUCTS Filed June 50, 1951 8 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR. 1R0 SENZANI Nov. 19, 195? l. SENZANl 2,813,498

HANDLING MACHINES FOR SPAGHETTI AND LIKE PRODUCTS Filed June 30. ,1951

8 Sheets-Sheet 5 1 INVENTOR. 1R0 SEJVZANI mam "M a MA Nov. 19, 1957 l. SENZANI 2,813,498

r HANDLING MACHINES FOR SPAGHETTI AND LIKE PRODUCTS Filed June so. 1951 8 Sheets-Sheet E INVENTOR. I

1R0 SENZANI Nov. 19, 1957 l. SENZANI 2,813,498

HANDLING MACHINES FOR SPAGHETTI AND LIKE PRODUCTS Filed June 50, 1951 8 Sheets-Sheet 7 INVENTOR. mag sENz m BY Peamum w WMA Nov. 19, 1957 1. SENZANI 2,813,498

HANDLING MACHINES FOR SPAGHETTI AND LIKE PRODUCTS Filed June 30. 1951 8 Sheets-Sheet 8 l I 1 i v i 1 l a l INVENTOR. 1R0 SENZANI BY V United States Patent HANDLING MACHINES FOR SPAGHETTI AND LIKE PRODUCTS Iro Senzani, Faenza, Italy, assignor, by mesne assignments, to Senzani Machinery Company, Inc., Lowell, Mass., a corporation Application June 30, 1951, Serial No. 234,540

18 Claims. (Cl. 107-21) This invention relates to improvements in handling machines for spaghetti and like products.

Spaghetti is conventionally hung in looped, vertically extending elongated strips on carrying rods supported on elevated drying racks, and objects of this invention are: (l) to transfer these elongated strips of spaghetti (which has usually heretofore been done by hand) to a flatly supported position on an operating table; (2) to relieve such elongated looped strips of their carrying rods; (3) to gather said elongated transferred strips of spaghetti in a sweeping operation into a cutting trough, and (4) to bundle, hold and out said elongated strips of spaghetti into a plurality of shorter pieces or box lengths by aligning, bundling, holding and cutting operations, said holding and cutting operations being successively accomplished to compensate for knife thickness and to avoid distortion and breakage and producing equal box lengths and removing the looped end loop portions.

To carry out the first object of this invention I provide novel means for handling and transferring the carrying rods with their loads of looped spaghetti strips (which rods are usually arranged on horizontally disposed racks in elevated position, each rod having its load comprising a series of looped strips of spaghetti hanging in a vertical position therefrom), to a supporting table and thence to cutting knives. For this purpose, the loaded rods are initially transferred to an overhead horizontally-disposed feeding rack and preferably moved forwardly with the spaghetti in such vertical position to the terminal or feeding end thereof where such loaded rods are fed to a pair of swinging transfer arms (adapted to automatically en gage the ends of such rods by rod-engaging and carrying elements at the upper ends of said pair of transfer arms in erect position thereof) and in one continuous movement which is divided into (1) a loaded-rod-transfer movement to lay the rod and load in supported fiat position on a strip-gathering table, (2) a rod-releasing movement, and (3) an erecting load-receiving movement, the load of strips of spaghetti carried by said rods are arranged or laid in flat position on a gathering table and are freed from their carrying rods.

Another object of my invention is to carry out said three movements by providing transfer arms each of which is formed of two parts, one comprising a pivoted powerapplying base member having a simple rotary movement about a fixed axis and the other a propelled rod-engaging transfer arm pivotally mounted intermediate its ends on the outer end of said pivoted base member, said base member and arm both having a conjoint forward pivotal movement in an arcuate path to a position at or adjacent to the end of the outward progression of the rotary path of the base member to carry and transfer the loaded rods preferably across strip-guiding means and into contact with said strip-gathering table in a spaghetti-supported position, then during a rearward receding movement of said pivoted base member, the propelled transfer arm is moved thereby to cause the same first to move in a guided movement transversely across said table in a retractive movement parallel with the spaghetti strips thereon to release the drying rods from the strands of said looped spaghetti strips, and secondly to move upwardly during an additional retractive movement to release and deliver the rod to a Slide extending to the rear of the machine. Thereafter during a further rearward movement of said power-applying base member said transfer arms are moved into erected rod-engaging position, while the transferred spaghetti strips are by additional manipulation of such strips gathered into a cutting trough, cut by knives and finally delivered to a packaging container.

To carry out the second object of my invention, I provide novel mechanism for moving a sweeping paddle longitudinally along said gathering table and transversely of the strips supported thereon comprising a paddle-carrying carriage mounted to move on a pair of spaced rails at the front of the strip-gathering table and provided with a vertically-movable slide operable by a continuously movable sprocket chain mounted on sprockets and adapted to operate pivoted lever mechanism to lower a paddle into sweeping or spaghetti-gathering position at one end of said chain and to raise said paddle into inoperative position at the opposite end thereof, and thus to sweep a rod-load of such spaghetti strips into a holding and cutting trough.

To carry out the third object of my invention, I provide novel mechanism preferably comprising a strip-aligning element, an initial strip-gathering and holding member and a plurality of knife-blades, each having holding elements at opposite sides of the blade, and being movable successively into spaghetti-cutting operation whereby I am enabled to successively cut into a plurality of packaging lengths the strips of spaghetti which havebeen swept, as aforesaid, into said holding and cutting trough, and I also preferably provide means suitably synchronized with the movement of the knives for lowering the trough bottorn to deliver the cut spaghetti into suitable containers.

With these and other objects in view, the invention comprises the combination of members and arrangement of parts so combined as to co-act and cooperate with each other, in the performance of the functions and the accomplishment of the results herein contemplated, and comprises in one of its adaptations the species or preferred form illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation of a spaghetti handling machine embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a view, partly in plan and partly in horizontal section on the line 22 of Fig. 1, of said machine look- .ing in the direction of the arrows, the gathering table and strips of spaghetti being removed to show the driving mechanism, and the arms disposed in partly retracted position;

Fig. 3 is a somewhat diagrammatic view in front end elevation of said machine shown in Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 4 is a somewhat diagrammatic, enlarged fragmentary front elevation of the transfer arm and mounting parts;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged view in side elevation substantially on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4 showing said transfer arm in unloaded condition at the end of its upward movement with the rod-engaging and carrying head at the up er end of guiding channel members employed for guiding the same;

Fig. 5A is a fragmentary view of the upper end of the rod-transfer arm during erecting movement thereof with the rod-engaging and carrying head entering into engagement with the ways 215 and about to engage the springpressed bottom-lowering lever;

Fig. 5B is a similar fragmentary view showing the spring-pressed bottomlowering lever in engagement with the track for the purpose of opening the bottom to release the empty rods and to cause the same to drop by gravity onto slides;

Fig. 6 is a view in elevation substantially on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3 of the transfer arm shown in Figs. 4 and 5 in loaded condition at beginning of its transfer movement, and also in dotted lines illustrating the varying positions during transfer and release of its load in supported position on the operating table;

Fig. 6A is a diagrammatic view of the operating mechanism for intermittently rotating the rod feeding gear of the invention;

Fig. 7 is a view in plan showing the bundles of spaghetti supported on the gathering table just prior to'beingswept into the cutting troughs;

Fig. 8 is asimilar view showing the position of the paddle after the sweeping of the spaghetti thereby into the cutting trough;

Fig. 9 is a view in end elevation on the line '99 of Fig. 7 showing, in raised, inoperative position, the front'holder and knife combinations for severing the spaghetti within the trough;

Fig. 10 is a view in end elevationon the line 10-10 of Fig. 8 showing in full lines the rear holder and knife combinations in spaghetti-cutting position and the frontend combination about to move successively into cutting position;

Fig. 11 is a similar view on the line 1010 of Fig. 8 looking in the direction of the arrowandshowing in full lines the positions of the two holder and cutting-blade combinations during the return movementsthereof into raised position and the lowering of the trough bottom;

Fig. 12 is an elevation on the line 12-12 of Fig. 11 showing the knives and the bundles of spaghetti after being severed by the holder and knife combinations;

Fig. 13 is a view substantially on the line 13-13 of Fig- 2 looking in the direction of the arrow and showing my sweeping paddle and the lowering and raising mechanism therefor;

Fig. 14 is a view in end elevation of the raising and lowering mechanism for the sweeping paddle in the position at one end of the operating chain;

Fig. 15 is a view. of said paddle-raising and lowering mechanism at the opposite end of the operating chain;

Fig. 16 is an enlarged view in end elevation showing the cutting trough, a knife blade and holder combination and the mechanism for moving the trough bottom into closed position and releasing the same for movement into open position;

Fig. 17 is an enlarged view similar to'Fig. 16 showing in full lines the position of the rear knife and holder combination in cutting position, the front knife and holder combination about to assume cutting position and the cutting trough and its bottom controlling mechanism still in raised position while the movement of the trough bottom and operating mechanism is shown in dotted lines;

Fig. 18 is an enlarged view in end elevation on ,the line 18-18 of Figs. 2 and 19 showing the cutting trough and gear mechanism for rotating'the knife-revolving shaft;

Figs. 18A and 18B are fragmentary side and end views showing the cam for moving the end of the trough to align the spaghetti; and

Fig. 19 is an enlarged view in side elevation substantially on the line 19--19 of Fig. 3 looking in the direction of the arrow and illustrating the gear mechanism for rotating the knife shaft and the position and movement of my strip-aligning flange.

Referring now to these drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention, 1 indicates a movable rod-carrying vehicle or case having rollers.2 and adapted to be filled with rods 3 having strips of spaghetti 4 looped about and hung in vertical position from the same. The case 1 is provided with oppositely disposed cross bars 100 and 101, having notches such as 102 and 103 for supporting the terminal ends such as 104 and 'provided for driving the conveyor chains.

of chains fi -are fixed to a shaft 8 4 105 of the rods 3. The rods 3 and looped bundles 4 of spaghetti are transferred from the vehicle 1 onto a drying rack 5 which is provided with rollers 116 and 117 mounted on rails 118 and 119 secured to the floor adapted to be lowered and then raised into engagement with the carrying rods for said strips of spaghetti. The rack 5 includes a pair of upstanding posts 106 and 107 together with suitable threaded spindles 108 and 109, beveled gears 110 and 111, a connecting shaft 112 and a handle 113 whereby slideable'brackets 114 and 115 may be raised and lowered in a well known manner. Rack 5 may be moved forwardly or rearwardly on wheels such as 116 and 117 guided on rails such as 118 and 119. A conveyor in the form of a pair of parallel chains 120 and 121 each having V shaped pockets such as 122 are mounted on the brackets 114 and 115 and a hand crank 123 (see Fig. 2) with a suitable sprocket 124 is The handle 113 is rotatably mounted on post 107 and carries a bevel gear meshing with a bevel gear on the lower end of threaded spindle 109. Each spindle such as 109 or 108 is rotatable in a guide bracket such as 250 on its supporting .post such as 107 and is threaded in a block such as 251 on its slideable sleeve such as 252 which in turn supports bracket 115 or 114. Cross shaft 112 carries bevel gears at each opposite end for causing duplicate rotation of threaded spindles 108 and 109 on each side of rack 5. Pillow blocks254 and 255 are secured to the upper ends of posts 106 and 107. Thus turning handle 113 rotates spindle 109, cross shaft 112 and spindle 108, thereby moving in a vertical plane the sleeves 252 and 256,

brackets 114 and 115 and chains 120 and 121. Rods 3 maythus be lifted off case 1 and advanced into rack 6 by turning handle 123-which advances the chains 120 and In accordance with the preferred form of my invention, the carrying rods 3 with their loads of spaghetti 4 are again transferred by a raising and lowering movement of the conveyor of rack 5 to an intermittently moved rod-feeding rack 6, the movement of which is suitably synchronized with the movement of transferarms 7 hereinafter more particularly specified. Rack 6 includes upstanding posts 125 and 126 provided with elongated supports 127 and 128, the supports carrying sprockets such as 129 (see Fig. 6) at each opposite end around which a pair of parallel conveyor chains such as 6' are trained. V-shaped pockets 6', similar to pockets 122 are spaced along chains 6 to receive the ends 104 and 105 of rods'3 from rack Sand carry the same to the terminal-endo ofrack 6 where the adjacent sprockets 129 Supports. 127 and 128 are rigidly mounted in any convenient manner by welding near the top of posts 125m 126. Sprockets 129 are rotatably mounted on suitable stub shafts at each opposite end of the supports 127 and 128. The terminal end 6 of said rack 6 is provided with a rod feeding gear 8 mounted on each stub shaft 8 and meshing with a gear 8 on another shaft 8. One of said gears 8 .isvprovided witha dog 9 pivotally mounted on a framemember 9 and movable into engagement with the -teeth of the gear '8 by link 10 whch is pivotal'ly coni nectedat oneend with said dogand also pivotally mountedat its opposite end on alever 11, which is pivotally .mounted-at one end on the shaft 8 and is pivotally con- ,ment oft-he shaft 7 to move the transfer arm 7 the cam-.12 will be rotated to engage a roller on a cam lever connected to, the rod 12 which will rock the lever 12, 1'2 on the shaft 12, thus depressing the rod 12 whereupon the'chains 6 of the rack 6 will be moved to cause engagement of the rods by contact with the engaging member 14 of each transfer arm 7, this mechanism being adapted to feed a rod with its load of spaghetti into registration with the said engaging members 14 of the arms 7-7 when the same are moved rearwardly into engagement with one of the rods 3 mounted at the terminal end of said rack 6.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention, the cam 12 for rocking the feed-control lever 12, 12 is pro vided with four identical projections, whereby upon one rotary movement of the shaft 7 to swing the transfer arm, said link 12 and lever 12, 12 will be moved four times and consequently the movement of the members 9, 1t) and 11 will produce a steady slow and gradual movement of the feed chains, and will thus prevent any excessive swinging or swaying movement of the spaghetti strips on the bars 3 which would occur if but a single cam was used on the operating shaft. Obviously by positioning the cam 12 on the operating shaft 7 the feed of the bars will be accurately synchronized with the movement of the arm 7.

Each of the arms 7 is provided at its outer end 7- with a releasable engaging element 14. Each engaging element 14 is preferably pivotally and resiliently mounted at one side of said outer end 7 to move beneath the outer ends of the rod 3 during the upward guided movement of said outer ends 7. Each element 14 is pivotally mounted on a pin 270 in a pivot pin recess in its arm 7 and includes another pin 272 which engages a leaf spring 273 on the arm 7. Each element 14 is thus normally held in an inclined position on its pivotal connection to arm 7 by its leaf spring. The spring is flexed by impact of roller 14 on table 15 and during the passage of roller 14 over the table 15. Each outer end 7 is also provided with a bevelled guiding pulley 7 which upon upward movement of said upper end cooperatively engages channel members or ways 215 to guide element 14 on said outer end 7 vertically into engagement with one of the rods 3 which has been moved in the notch members 6' of the chains 6* into the position shown in dotted lines at the outer end of the rack 6, it being understood that such rod 3 will, upon engagement and during the upward movement of the arms 7 above the position of the same on the rack 6, slide downwardly on the inclined bottoms or ways 14 to the position shown in Fig. 6, whereupon both arms 7 will be moved conjointly with a power-applying base member 7 into the position shown in dotted lines in Figs. 5 and 6 with the nose of each member 14, which is preferably provided with a roller 14 in contact with the upper surface of the sweep ing table 15. Said table, as shown, is positioned at or adjacent to the end of the outward progression of the rotary path of the base member 7 which is movable in a given circle and is pivoted on shaft 7 The transfer arm 7 thus embodies said pivoted power-applying base member 7 pivoted, as aforesaid, on the shaft 7 and movable about a fixed axis and the rod-engaging member 7 which is pivoted intermediate its ends on the stub shaft 7 supported in a bearing 7 at the upper end 7 of the base member 7.

The propelled rod-engaging transfer member 7' thus has a conjoint movement with the pivoted power-applying base member 7 in an arcuate path to the end of the outward progression of the circular movement of the said base member 7 at which position the member 14 will engage the upper surface 15' of the table 15 and at this point in said conjoint movement the lower end of the arm 7 will be released from engagement with the base member 7 by disengagement of a spring-pressed dog 16 carried by said base member 7 (see Fig. 4) from a socket 16 in the arm 7'. Each dog 16 is released by engagement of a roller 17 at the end thereof with a track 18 suitably arranged on a stationary bearing for the shaft 7 in the path of conjoint movement of the arms 7 and 7'.

As best shown in Fig. 6 a cross rod 360, carried by a pair of opposite brackets such as 361 retards the lower ends of the spaghetti strands 4 during their downward movement onto table 15.

Upon release of the lower end of the arm 7 from the power-applying base member 7 it will still be pivoted intermediate its ends on the base member 7 which, during its recessive movement, will exert a pull on its outer end 7 through said intermediate pivotal mounting 7. The recessive portion of the circular movement of the base member 7 will thus result in the pulling of the outer end 7 of the rod-engaging member 7' along the surface of the table 15 in a rearward direction parallel with the strands of spaghetti which have been laid upon said table. The member 7' will thus carry the rod 3 rearwardly out of engagement with the strands of spaghetti.

Upon reaching the end of the strands of spaghetti on the table 15 the intermediately-pivoted arms: 7 are swung about their pivots or shafts 7 to cause their heads 7 to move upwardly. This is accomplished by engagement of rollers 7 mounted at the lower ends of said arms with track members 19 positioned on the frame of the machine in the path of movement of such lower end. These track members 19 will, in combination with the circular movement of the power-applying base member, cause the rollers 7 on each of the upper ends of arm 7 to be engaged in ways 215 (see Fig. 5), and, at the beginning of upward movement through the ways 215, the engaging member 14, which is provided with a dropbottom 14 pivoted at 14 (see Fig. 5B) is normally held in closed position by a spring-pressed trip lever 20 extending upwardly from pivot 14. The lever 20 is, as shown, normally pressed into bottom-closing position by the spring 21, and upon engagement of said lever with the trip-track 22 the spring 21 will be stretched to cause the drop-bottom 14 to open and to release the empty rod then being carried in the rod-engaging member 14. This empty rod will then drop by gravity upon inclined rod-slides 23 on which slides said rods will roll by gravity to the rear of the machine (see particularly Figs. 1, 4

. and 5, 5A and 5B).

After the opening of the bottom 14 to drop the rods, the upper end of the arm is guided by the roller 7 and moved by the base member to a position above the triptrack at the upper end of the ways 215, in which position the spring-pressed lever will be released to close the dropbottom and the rod-engaging member 14 at the upper end of the member 7 will be moved into engagement with another spaghetti loaded rod.

The rod-load of spaghetti having been thus laid on the gathering table 15, means is provided for gathering said elongated transferred strips of spaghetti in a sweeping operation into a cutting trough 38 hereinafter more particularly described and for this purpose, I provide a sweeping paddle 24 and means for moving the same longitudinally along said gathering table 15 in a path transversely of the spaghetti strips supported thereon. As illustrated (see particularly Figs. 1 and 13) the paddle 24 is mounted at the outer end of a paddle carrying lever 24, which is pivoted on a spindle 25 carried in a carriage 26 mounted by rollers 27, 27, 27 on. and movable along a pair of spaced rails 28,, 28 positioned at the front of the strip-gathering table. The carriage 26is propelled along the edge of the table by connection thereof to a sprocket chain 29 mounted at its opposite ends on sprockets 30, 30. Said chain and sprockets are not only utilized as a propelling mechanism but also provide means for initially holding the paddle in elevated position at one end of the table then lowering the paddle to sweeping position, and after completion of said sweeping movement, raising the paddle again into elevated position and propelling to initial position. For this purpose, the carriage 26 is provided with vertical ways 31 in which is mounted a slide element'32 which is connected to the lower transversely bent end 32 of the link lever 32, and which lower end 32, as shown in Fig. 14, extends into and engages the slide block 32 The upper transversely bent end of lever 32 is connected by a power-applying lever 24 fixed on the shaft 25 and adapted when moved by the link lever 32 to rock In the emthereof a roller 29 adapted during movement about the sprockets 30,30 to move in the ways 31 from upper to lower positions and to carry the block 32 and the end 32 of the link lever up and down in the ways 31. No

,direct eonnectionbetween roller 29 and block 32 is necessary since the weight of the paddle 24 tends to liftt-he block 32in ways 31 and the roller need only push the block, 32 downward to raise the paddle 24 on its return, passage.

The roller. 29 .thusengages the block'32 and moves :..the same :withthe end 32 of the link 32 downwardly at one end ofv the; chain to cause an upward movement of the lever 24* and paddle 24 and upwardly at the other end of thesprocket chain, to cause a downward movement of .the paddle prior to a reciprocating back and forth movementof. said carriage by engagement of the roller. member with one side or the other of the ways 31.

:The roller 29* being thus connected with the slide block causes. said block. to move upwardly and downwardly when moved around the sprockets as hereinabove men- ..tioned and when movedalong the chain also traverses the same in a gathering movement while the paddle 24 is in lowered. position and traverses the same in the opposite .direction while the paddle 24 is in raised position.

The chain 29 is traversed by sprocket 30 which is fixed on the shaft 30 (see Fig. 13) mounted in ballbearings 30 and supported in bearing member 30 and rotatedthrough' bevel gear 30 which meshes with bevel ngear. 33 fixed. .on shaft 33 which is rotated (see Fig. 2)

by fixed bevel. gear 33 meshing with bevel gear 34 on transmission shaft 34, which in turn is rotated through gear 34 (see Fig. 1) from gear 35 on the main shaft 7 which is rotatedthrough gear 35 meshing with gear '35 on shaft 36 which is driven by pulley 37 from any suitable source of power, not shown.

Thestrands ofspaghetti .laid on table 15 are by the paddle 24 swept laterally or transversely into a cutting .trough 38 (see Figs. 3 and 7) located at one end of said table 15 and having an arcuate drop-bottom 38 pivoted on a pivot member. 38* (see Figs. 9-12) and operable into open position by gravity. Said drop-bottom 38 is movable into and normally held in closed position by engagementwith roller 39 (see Figs. 16 and 17) on the lever39 which is fixedly pivoted at 39* on beam 39" and movable by engagement intermediate its ends with arm 40 pivoted thereto at 40 and operated into closed and open position byengagernent of roller 40* at the opposite end thereof with cam 40 on shaft 34 (see Figs.

3, 16' and 17). Asrshown in Fig. 3 the parti-circular face of cam 40 holds drop-bottom 38 normallyclosed. synchronization with shaft 34, .the recess in the cam face rotates into position to allow gravity to momentarily "open the bottom 38*- to discharge the contents. of trough 38.

The various strands of spaghetti, upon reaching the trough 38 aremoved into alignment with each otherand for this purpose I provide at the inner end of the trough -38 a terminalend-and aligning flange 4.1 of segmental shapeso as to fit the end of the trough 38. Said flange .41 is fixedly mounted at the ends of a pair of reeipro- I eating rods 41 .41 which, as shown, are normally the-springs 41 intothe-said position shown in dotted lines-by cam-'41 carried on the outer face of flange. 41

e to engage the endsof the. spaghetti strands and .to move:

such ends into alignment with each other within the trough 38. The aforesaid aligning movement is synchronized with the movement of a pair of cutting shafts 42 and 43 which are rocked successively to move cutting blades successively into cutting engagement by the earns 58, 58 as hereinafter described. Thus, on the shaft 42 I mount in a rotatively advanced position an initial gathering arm 44 which, as shown in Figs. 10 and 19, is

positioned adjacent to the inner end of the trough and is utilized for the purpose of engaging and gathering into a bundle the strands of spaghetti located within the trough 38. Arm 44 includes a slot for a pin on shaft 42 (Fig. 19) and is connected to the pin by a spring. Thus the arm 44 gathers the strands and then halts while the shaft 42 continues turning. On the same shaft 42 with said initial gathering arm 44, but spaced a suitable distance therefrom, I provide a knife blade 45 and also adjacent thereto and at opposite sides thereof, I preferably position resiliently mounted strip-retaining arms 46 and 47. 'The arms 46 and 47 are resiliently connected by springs 46 47 with the rear edge of theblade 45 and are positioned rotatively in advance thereof so as to move down before the knife blade 45 and to hold the strands of spaghetti in a gathered tightened position against the rear board 48 in order to enable the knife 45 which follows such arms 46 and 47 closely to sever the strands upon a complete cutting movement of said knife blade 45 against the board 48, which is thus used as a cutting base member. The cutting movement of the knife blades 45 and 50 will, as illustrated in Figs. 9

vto 12, sever from the spaghetti strips a given length such as shown at 49 in Fig. 12.

Severing of the strips by the knife will leave strip portions having attached loops at the uncut ends, and it will be understood that it is necessary to cut off such looped tips of the strands in order to provide an addi tional box-length. For this purpose, I provide a knife blade 50 with a pair of resiliently mounted strip-retaining arms 51 and 52 similarly connected with the blade 50 by springs 51, 52 and this knife blade 50 is adapted, upon a rocking and cutting operation as shown in Figs. 10 and 11 to sever the looped ends 53 from the intermediate portions 54' as illustrated in Fig. 12.

It will be understood that the knife 45 will have a certain thickness and in view of this fact, an operation of both knives together would cause a rupture of the spaghetti strands, and, in order to solve this problem, I have mounted the knife 50 and the resiliently mounted retaining arms 51 and 52 on the shaft 43 which is separate from the shaft 42 and is independently successively rocked in relation to the blade 45, the movement of these blades, of course, being properly synchronized with the other moving parts of the machine.

In the embodiment shown, the shaft 43 (see Figs. 12 and 19) extends axially within the hollow shaft 42 and (Figs. 1819) is rocked by gear 54 and segment 54 on a cam-actuated arm 56 mounted on the inner protruding end of shaft 43 fixed to segment 54a while the hollow shaft 42 is rocked by gear 55 and segment 55a on cam-actuated arm 56. Segment 55 is carried by a sleeve mounted in a fixed bearing (Fig. 19). These arms 56, 56 are connected with rods 57, 57 operated by earns 58, 58 (see Fig. 2). As shown in Fig. 19 the cam actuated arm 56 is adapted to engage the curved cam track on the arcuate cam 41 carried by flange 41 and thereby force the flange 41 inwardly of the trough to align the spaghetti ends simultaneous with the descent of arm 44. Rods 57 and 57 are yieldingly and resiliently heldagainst their respective earns 58 and 58 by springs .not shown.

By suitably arranging the cams, rods and segments,

the gears 54-55 may be successively rocked tomove the blades into cutting engagement with the strands of spa- .ghetti.

1 From the above, it will be seen that I am enabled first to align the strips, then to gather the spaghetti strips within the trough into an initial bundle before severing the same, then by successive movement of the blades to sever the same into two box-lengths and a joint or loop portion.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. In a handling machine for spaghetti and like products, the combination with a support forming a strip gathering table, of a pair of elongated swinging transfer arms, means at the upper ends of said transfer arms for engaging and supporting a rod loaded with product strips in looped arrangement, rotating means supporting the lower ends of said arms for imparting a continuous movement in a closed path to the upper ends thereof, and means for guiding said upper ends through an initial arcuate rod-transfer movement to lay the rod longitudinally, with said product strips extending laterally, on said strip gathering table, a subsequent rectilinear rodreleasing movement laterally of said table and a final rectilinear arm-erecting movement to rod-engaging positlon.

2. In a handling machine for spaghetti and like products, as claimed in claim 1, a device in which each of the members of the pair of swinging transfer arms is formed in two parts, one comprising a pivoted powerapplying base member having a rotary movement about a fixed axis and the other comprising a rod-engaging transfer arm having a primary pivotal connection intermediate its ends on the outer end of said pivoted base member, said power-applying base member and rodengaging transfer arm having a secondary connection comprising a releasable coupling engagement adapted to cause a conjoint and similar forward swinging movement thereof about said fixed axis in an arcuate path to a position at or adjacent to the end of the outward progression of the rotary path of said base member to carry and transfer loaded rods of spaghetti into contact with a strip-gathering table in a product-supported position, then at the end of said conjoint forward movement and during a rearward receding movement of the said pivoted base member, upon release of said secondary coupling engagement causing said propelled transfer arm to be moved through its said pivotal connection with said base member in a guided retractive movement transversely across said table and parallel with the product strips thereon to release the rods from the strands of said looped strips, and subsequently by an additional retractive movement of said base member to be moved upwardly to release and deliver an engaged rod, and thereafter by a further rearward movement of the said power-applying base member causing said transfer arm to be moved into erected rodengaging position.

3. A handling machine for spaghetti and like products as claimed in claim 1 plus a rack which is movable forwardly to feed rods successively to the rod engaging means of said transfer arms and intermittent actuating means synchronized with the travel of said arms and connected with said rack for moving the same in a series of short movements during a single movement of said transfer arms to control excessive swinging of product strips on the rods.

4. A handling machine for spaghetti and like products as specified in claim 1 plus a cutting trough extending laterally of said table and sweeping means extending laterally of said table, said sweeping means being synchronized with the travel of the upper ends of said transfer arms and adapted to move longitudinally across said table to gather said strips into said trough after a rod has been laid on said table and during the movement of said arms back to their rod receiving position.

5. The method of automatically and successively con verting rows of dried alimentary paste strips, each row of strips depending by looped portions from a drying rod,

into a plurality of shorter, straight, package lengths which method comprises the steps of: rotating each sue cessive rod, and the looped portions of said strips carried thereby, downwardly around an axis of rotation while applying a counter rotative force to the depending unlooped ends of said strips until said row of strips is supported on a substantially horizontal surface with said strips extending laterally thereof; withdrawing said rod horizontally in a direction laterally of said surface, through the unlooped ends of the row of strips; sweeping said row of strips longitudinally of said surface into a bundle and supporting said bundle at the bottom and on opposite sides thereof; aligning the unlooped ends of said strips while so bundled and supported; gathering the aligned strips into a compact bundle while so supported; simultaneously cutting off the looped ends and cutting through an intermediate portion of said bundled strips to form package lengths while so gathered and supported; and then discharging said looped ends and said package lengths from the severed bundle.

6. In a machine for automatically and successively converting rows of dried alimentary paste strips, each row of strips depending by looped portions from a drying rod, into a plurality of shorter, straight package lengths, the combination of a sweeping table having a substantially horizontal surface and having a cutting trough at one end thereof; transferring means for individually and successively engaging a drying rod, depositing said rod, with its row of strips fiatwise on said surface and withdrawing the rod from said strips; means for sweeping said row of strips across said surface into said cutting trough; means for aligning the unlooped ends of said strips in said trough; means forgathering said strips into a compact bundle in said trough; means for cutting off the looped ends and cutting through an intermediate portion of said compact bundle in said trough thereby forming short straight package lengths and means for discharging said out ends and said out package lengths from said trough.

7. A combination as specified in claim 6 plus means forconveying said drying rods from a drying rack to said transfer means.

8. A combination as specified in claim 6 wherein said transfer means includes a pair of oppositely disposed transfer arms each having rod engaging mechanism at its outer end and having its other end pivoted to a power applying base member mounted to revolve around a fixed axis.

9. A combination as specified in claim 6 wherein said sweeping means includes a paddle located out of the path of said transfer arms and operable to enter said path and move across said surface to said cutting trough at the completion of each transfer of a rod and associated paste strips to said table.

10. A combination as specified in claim 6 wherein said aligning means includes an end of said cutting trough, said end being mounted to reciprocate toward and away from the unlooped ends of said strips.

11. A combination as specified in claim 6 wherein said gathering means includes an arm mounted on a shaft extending parallel to said trough to rotate downwardly and press said strips against the bottom and a. side of said trough.

12. A combination as specified in claim 6 wherein said cutting means comprises a knife blade, mounted on a shaft extending parallel to said trough to rotate downwardly and out said strips.

13. A combination as specified in claim 6 wherein said discharge means includes a pivotally mounted bottom on said cutting trough.

14. A combination as specified in-claim 6 wherein said gathering means includes a gathering arm pivoted on a shaft to rotate downwardly and apply pressure on the upper portion of said strips and said cutting means includes a knife blade mounted on the same shaft as said gathering arm, to rotate downwardly in rear of said arm,

1 1 pass said arm and cut said strips, said knife being of substantial depth to form a partition between strips it hascut.

15. In a machine for automatically and successively converting rows of dried alimentary paste strips, each row of strips depending by looped portions from a drying rod, into a plurality of shorter lengths, the combination of a sweeping table having a substantially horizontal surface including a cutting trough at one end thereof; apair of transfer arms each having rod engaging mechanism at its outer end and having its other end pivoted to a power applying base member mounted to revolve around a fixed axis, said arms being operable to deposit each rod with its row of strips on said table and withdraw said' rod; an element mounted to reciprocate longitudinally of said table to sweep said strips into said cutting trough, a pivoted 'arm mounted proximate said cutting trough to gather the strips therein into a compact bundle, an aligning member mounted proximate said trough to align the unlooped ends of said bundle, a pair of cutting knives,,mounted proximate said trough to cut off said looped ends and cut through said bundle and a pivoted bottom on said trough, operable to discharge the cut lengths from said trough.

16. In a machine for automatically and successively converting rows of dried alimentary paste strips, each row ofstrips depending by looped portions from a drying rod, into a plurality of shorter lengths, the combination of means for laying each rod with its row of strips flatwise on a substantially horizontal platform and withdrawing the rod from said strips, means for sweeping said row of strips across said platform and into a cutting trough to form a bundle, means for aligning the unlooped ends of said bundle in said trough, means for gathering and compacting said bundle in said trough, means for cutting said compacted bundle into package lengths in said trough, and means for discharging said lengths from said trough.

17. In a machine for use in handling dried alimentary paste strips, a row of said strips being each looped over a drying rod and the drying rod being supported in a rack, the combination of a sweeping table having a strip receivingsurface with a strip receiving container at one end thereof; a pair of transfer arms, each having rod engaging mechanism at its outer end and having its other end pivoted to a power applying base member mounted to 12 revolve on a fixed axis, said arms being operable to individually and successively remove a rod from said rack, deposit the rod with its row of strips fiatwise on the strip receiving surface of said sweeping table and withdraw said rod from the unlooped ends of said strips and a sweeping element mounted to travel along the strip-receiving surface of said sweeping table and sweep said strips into said strip receiving container.

18. In a machine for use in cutting a row of looped, dried alimentary paste strips into shorter package lengths, the combination of a sweeping table, having a surface for receiving said row of strips, each strip extending laterally thereof, a strip receiving trough at one end of said table and extending laterally of said table, a sweeping paddle, mounted to travel longitudinally along the strip receiving surface of saidsweeping table to sweep said row of strips into said trough, an aligning member mounted at one end of said trough to move lengthwise thereof and alignthe unlooped ends of the strips in said trough, a gathering arm pivoted to rotate crosswise in said trough to gather said strips into a'compact bundle, a pair of cutting knives pivoted to rotate crosswise in said trough to cut off the looped ends and cut through the intermediate portion of said strips and a trough bottom, pivoted to discharge-said cut lengths and loops from said trough.

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